CHAPTER 2
I met up with Pete when all the shit at school was over and I was finally allowed to leave. It was a blessing in disguise as I hated that shithole in any case and now I never needed to go back there again. I would have to find another school the next day which would be difficult because there were no other schools in the town so I was pretty much fucked. I thought to myself that maybe I should just drop out of school, it's not like it was helping me anyway because I am failing but I still wanted to leave Mr Johnson with something to remember me by so I needed a plan. When I arrived at Pete's house I told him about everything that had happened, up to the finest detail. He laughed so hard that his tummy started aching. He was a bit more stoned than usual so he found everything amusing. I told him that I wanted to go back later that night and fuck some things up. Pete thought that this was a brilliant idea and we discussed what we could do but because of the weed we both lost the plot a bit and could not get any ideas worth pursuing. Pete decided there and then that he would also not be going back to that school and that he would go wherever it is I was going. Not that I had any plans so I figured that we would just wing it and see where we ended up.
At around midnight, myself and Pete were on our way to the school yard. On our way there we saw a little dog roaming the streets. This was perfect. I could use the dog to make good old Mr Johnson and the rest of the school scared, mad and sad at the same time. It reminded me of the time when I was 12 years old and was home alone. We had a Persian cat that was given to my mother as a present on her birthday. I was bored and the cat came to me, rubbing itself on my leg. I picked up the cat, went into the kitchen and got the butcher's knife from the drawer. I took the cat to the back of the yard, pressed it hard down on the ground and chopped his head off with the knife. The cat was dead and I went to get another knife to cut with. I methodically cut the cat open and studied all the organs and body parts of the cat. It was really intriguing. I later told my parents that the cat ran away in search for people who loved him and showed more affection in the hope that they hear my cry for help but to no avail.
I called the dog to us and it slowly, hesitantly made its way to me. It was frightened and seemed like it was lost. When the dog reached me I recognized it from a picture I saw on the school bulletin board earlier in the day about a lost dog and that there is a R1000 reward to whoever finds it and brings it back to its owner. I told this to Pete and the idea of using the dog to stick it to everyone faded away. We could rather take the dog back to its owners, claim the reward and then have some cash for drugs, alcohol or whatever need we saw fit. We have discussed visiting a gentleman's bar that opened recently and Pete said that his nephew is a bouncer there so getting in would not be a problem seeing that we were still underage. I told Pete that we needed to find something to hold the dog with until we were done and then we could fetch it when we were done and take it back to its owner in the morning. So we looked around and found a piece of rope, tied it around the dog's neck and pulled it along with us as we embarked on our shit storm still unsure of what we were going to do but I knew that we would figure something out and I knew that it was going to be exceptional.
We reached the school and saw that the gate was locked so we climbed over the wall. Pete climbed over first. I handed the dog to him and then climbed over myself. I took the dog from Pete, found a nearby small tree, then took the other end of the rope and tied it around the tree, leaving the dog there with the intention of coming back once we were done and then taking the dog home with us to claim our reward the next day. The dog started barking and moaning as we walked away but I couldn't care less and just kept on walking.
We slowly moved through the hallways. It was dark, silent and quite scary to be honest. The sound of insects, birds, mice and all sorts of other creatures filled the night. It felt more like being in a graveyard than in a school yard. I got chills down my spine as we walked into the dark night.
Still not sure how and what I wanted to do, I decided to start small. I was going to take a shit right in front of Ms Waltons's office so she could have a nice view of my feelings towards her. We arrived in front of her class door and I started to unbutton my pants, Pete was laughing and loving every second of the thrill of what was happening. We might be caught by a janitor or any of the school personnel who lived on the property and that just added to the thrill and suspense.
Just as I squatted down to dump my bodily solids on the ground, we heard a loud thud, like someone drove into a wall. It gave me quite a fright and I immediately jumped up and pulled up my pants. As I was zipping up, the foreskin of my penis got caught in the zipper and I gave out a hefty growl of pain. Pete saw what I had done and started chuckling. Clearly the weed was still fucking with him. I could feel I was bleeding from the wet spot inside my underpants but this was no time to worry about pain even though it hurt like hell. We needed to find out where the sound was coming from as we could be caught and jail is really not a place that I want to spend the night. This would be seen as trespassing and could land us in some deep shit.
We slowly moved through the halls to try and establish where the sound was coming from when it suddenly happened again, louder this time and we knew that we were. Pete and I just stood there for a couple of seconds, staring wide eyed at each other when Pete signalled that we should keep moving. I followed Pete into the dark hallways and as we passed the school hall, we saw flashing red lights from inside the main offices. We knew that this must be where the sound came from and that something very weird was going on. Pete started walking into the direction of the office, but I stopped him. He looked confusingly at me and I said:
"Pete, I think we should rather go, we have no idea who or what is waiting for us in there and I'm getting a really bad feeling about this."
"We came all this way, I can't turn around now."
"If you want to go and look, you're on your own. I am leaving now. I will wait for you in the street."
Pete nodded and started walking towards the office building. I watched him for a while, turned around and started going back towards the back gate. I was baffled, I couldn't believe that Pete just turned around without even saying a word, but I knew I needed to get out and that's what I was planning to do. I came up to the last corner and was almost home free. As I came around the corner I got hit in the face and was unconscious. A couple of guys-disciples as I later learned-dragged me to the office building. When I woke up I saw Pete sitting there, smiling at me. I was confused and did not know what the hell was going on. I saw candles that were lit all around, people muttering strange words and others humming. It was truly some weird shit and I did not know what to do or say. I just sat there staring at everyone and at all the strange things going on around me.
After a while, a man came out of one of the other offices. His face was painted in dark red with black stripes across it. He wore a cape that was torn at the bottom and held something in his hand which looked a lot like Poseidon's Trident. In the midst of all this I realized that Pete was no longer in the room with us. I feared that they might have taken Pete into another room to be killed and that the same fate awaited me very shortly but on the other hand he, he was smiling at me when I woke up so this was some crazy, fuckedup shit. I couldn't figure out what the fuck was going on.
Nobody spoke a word, they were just humming a strange tune while two other persons were banging softly on some drums. It felt like an African tribe performing some sort of ritual. Only this shit was a hell of a lot more scary and fuckedup. After seeing those shows on Discovery Channel about African rituals, I did not want to be a part of that. This might be some sort of witch craft or I might be offered to one of their gods or some shit like that. I tried breaking free from the ties around my ankles and wrists but to no avail. Whoever tied me up clearly knew what he was doing. I wasn't going anywhere.
After some time, another person came into the room. Also painted like the man that had come in earlier. He bowed at the one that was standing there and then focused on me. I knew something was gonna happen and through all this I pissed my pants. I've never in my entire life been as scared as I was at that moment. Along with the piss, came the crying. I thought I was gonna die. I softly pleaded to the man not to kill me but the shock and anxiety was so much that the words I was trying to say could barely be heard. The second man made his way to me and put his hand on my shoulder, I was too scared to even look up and just waited for them to cut my head off, shoot me or whatever way they were gonna finish me off. I didn't want to look the person in the eye that was about to kill me.
The man lifted up my head, I tried to pull back, but he used more force and suddenly I was looking him dead in the eye. He had a sadistic smile on his face and he looked very familiar. After a while I muscled up the courage and asked:
"Pete? Is that you?"
"Quiet now young one, you are in safe hands" came the response.
I knew it was Pete and this made me feel a little more at ease, still unsure of what was going on and what was going to happen. The other man in the room signalled to Pete to come over to him. Pete went there and the man whispered something in his ear. Pete came back over to me and started talking.
"Do you want a new and better life? A life where you are in charge? A life where all people fear you? Where your presence sends goose bumps up people's spines? A life of fortune, endless amounts woman and no guilt?"
I truly did not know what to say and started stuttering and then suddenly the loud bang struck again. I saw that it was a guy hitting what looked like a cymbal using a massive mallet. It gave me a massive freight and I just yelled yes. Pete then stepped three steps back and the other man came over to me. He stood in front of me, lifted his hands towards the sky, looked up at the ceiling and said:
"You are now my disciple, you will obey my each and every command, I am now your master and you will honour me for as long as you live. The only way to leave is through death, do you understand?"
"Yes, I do" I mumbled while stuttering a bit.
"Give me your right hand."
He took out a knife and cut me on the palm of my hand, blood oozing out of the cut. It hurt like hell but I just sat there with big eyes, not saying a word. At this point I just wanted this shit to be over so that I could get the fuck out of this place. They brought a small cat from the other room and without flinching, slit its throat. The man then took some of the cat's blood, smeared it over my face and put the dead cat into my bleeding hand and said the words:
"Your blood is now stained by the innocent."
He then took the knife and made the same cut on his hand. He grabbed my right hand with his and we were now in contact with one another's blood.
I was horrified, even though Pete and I planned the same sort of thing using the dog from the street, this just seemed so cruel. There was not a flinch, no remorse, nothing from this man as he slit the poor cats' throat. I had never witnessed anything as cruel as that and thought to myself that he would surely not hesitate to do this to a human being so I needed to keep myself together so that I could get out of this alive.
The next thought that came to me was that I now could get HIV or some other blood disease because of mixing blood with this man. I had been exposed to a person I did not know for shit. Then realized that none of that mattered if I die tonight and even if I survive, I won't even go to a doctor. I wanted to die and even though this would be a slow and agonizing death, at least I would die eventually.
The drums became louder and louder and all of the people in the room started chanting and screaming. They all knelt before the man that cut my hand and slit the cats' throat. Pete came to me, grabbed my hand and pulled me down to kneel as well. I heard all of them repeating the same words, "Vladimir is King." This went on for a couple of minutes and then the man – who I now presumed was Vladimir - signalled that we should get up. We all got up and he slowly left the room. The entire time that this was going on, Vladimir had not said a single word out loud, only whispering in Pete's ear once. Everyone reacted to his hand signals and it I knew that he was definitely the leader of whatever the hell this was. I still had no words to say and had no clue as to what the fuck just happened. All the other people came over to where Pete and I was standing, bowed their heads to us and left the room, until it was only Pete and I left. I turned to Pete, he just stood there with a smile and said, "Let's go home, we can talk later."
Pete went outside. I stood there for a few seconds surveying the office, still dumb struck and then I went outside and followed Pete as we made our way home. Neither I, nor Pete, said a word all the way home and just went straight to bed. I was still puzzled and laid in bed for a long time, thinking of what had happened until I finally fell asleep.
That was the first time I came into contact with Vladimir Vasiliev, but would surely not be the last. At that point I didn't realize what influence he would have on my life and what I would learn from him.
